BCDR 153 – the ‘Royal Saloon’
Belfast & County Down Railway No. 153 is undoubtedly one of the most historic railway carriages in Ireland, let alone in our museum collection. It was built for the BCDR to accommodate Queen Victoria on her tour of Ireland for her Diamond Jubilee, and was the most opulent carriages ever owned by the railway. It […]
An Post TPO 2977
Travelling Post Offices (TPOs) were first used by the railways in the 1830s, and greatly enhanced the efficiency of postal communication from the outset. Instead of horse-drawn mail carriages travelling along unsurfaced roads, rail travel reduced journeys that would otherwise take days into a matter of a few hours. TPOs provided accommodation for postal workers […]
GSWR 836
Built in 1902 as an open third, 836 was built by the Ashbury Carriage & Iron Company for the Great Southern & Western Railway for use on their Dublin – Cork express trains. It is one of 44 carriages built to the same design, and passed into Great Southern Railway ownership in 1924, and again […]
BCDR 148
148 is one of six bogie composite coaches built by Ashbury Carriage and Iron for the BCDR in 1897. They had three second class compartments and four first class compartments and, along with six third class bogie brakes ordered from Ashbury the same year, were used primarily on Donaghadee boat trains and mainline trains to […]
BCDR 72 – the ‘Holywood Railmotor’
72 was built as railmotor No. 2 by the Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Company of Birmingham in 1905, having been ordered by the BCDR the previous year. It had a small 0-4-0T steam engine permanently attached which could be driven from a small cab at the far end of the carriage. The idea was […]
CIÉ E421 ‘W. F. Gillespie OBE’
E421 was built by CIÉ in Inchicore Works in 1962, with prime mover being supplied by Maybach of Germany. The class leader of the 14-strong ‘E Class’, E421 made its debut on a test run in September 1962. In spectacular fashion, it hurled itself off the tracks at 60mph near Newbridge in County Kildare. The […]